Radio communication devices, such as mobile telephones and similar equipment, are becoming increasingly complex. Emerging communication standards, e.g. LTE (Long Term Evolution) and IMT (International Mobile Telecommunication) advanced, will provide high data rates and be based on complex techniques and algorithms to transmit and receive signals. For example, techniques used for efficient transmission, such as modulation schemes, coding, channel estimation, synchronization etc. continue to grow in complexity with the evolution of standards. The increased complexity also applies to the radio circuitry that serves as an interface between the antenna and the digital baseband circuit, which is hosting the algorithms for modulation, coding etc. For example, the complexity of the radio circuitry may increase due to an increased number of frequency bands and modes of operation that need to be supported. Hence, radio circuitry may need to be reconfigured based on mode of operation.
Furthermore, many parts of the radio circuitry are normally designed and operated to cater for worst-case scenarios stipulated by standard specifications. Such scenarios may be relatively rare or even non-existent. Therefore, a more flexible radio circuit that can provide just enough performance at any given time may be advantageous e.g. in order to save power. This would require an increased degree of reconfigurability, resulting in a further increased complexity.
In order to facilitate such increased reconfigurability and flexibility, there is a need for a technique to facilitate time accurate control of the radio circuitry with respect to reconfiguration, data streams, calibration, debugging, etc. from the digital baseband circuit. US 2006/0239337 discloses a method in a transceiver of receiving digital control information that includes both event and schedule information from a baseband processor. The digital control information is stored in a storage of the transceiver, and the transceiver is operated according to the event and schedule information. To control the timing of the events in the transceiver, the baseband processor supplies a strobe signal via a dedicated signal line to the transceiver. Scheduling the events in relation to a strobe signal as disclosed in US 2006/0239337 provides a relatively limited scheduling flexibility. Furthermore, the use of the strobe signal adds to the complexity of the interface circuitry. For example, if the transceiver and the baseband processor reside on separate integrated circuits (ICs), dedicated pins for the strobe signal are needed on the baseband processor IC and the transceiver IC.
In view of the above, there is a need for improved circuitry for radio communication.